Robert F. Scott, CS

Month: June 2017

The Manual of The Mother Church by Mrs. Eddy, under the heading “Church Periodicals,” states (Art. VIII, Sect. 14), “And it shall be the duty of the Directors to see that these periodicals are ably edited and kept abreast of the times.”

Mary Baker Eddy

No Incorrect Literature.

A member of this Church shall neither buy, sell, nor circulate Christian Science literature which is not correct in its statement of the divine Principle and rules and the demonstration of Christian Science. Also the spirit in which the writer has written his literature shall be definitely considered. His writings must show strict adherence to the Golden Rule, or his literature shall not be adjudged Christian Science. A departure from the spirit or letter of this By-Law involves schisms in our Church and the possible loss, for a time, of Christian Science.

Mary Baker Eddy

Manual of The Mother Church, Article VIII, Section 11

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Several articles and editorials have been written explaining why homosexuals cannot be admitted to membership. One of these I wrote myself, the title: “Homosexuality Can Be Healed.” All I can say in defense of myself for writing it is that it was based on information I thought was authentic, but which later was disproved by further studies. If I were to write another article on the subject now, I would probably entitle it, “We’re ALL God’s Children.”

by Carl J. Welz, C.S.B.

Houston, TX – October 11, 1986

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A Senior Researcher of The Mary Baker Eddy Library stated there is nothing in Mrs. Eddy’s writings supporting those anti-gay articles or using Christian Science as a tool for reparative therapy during a workshop at Midwest Church Alive 2014.

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I was heart broken several years ago during a visit to The Mother Church when a reliable source high within the movement informed me of his close friend and student of Christian Science who committed suicide after class instruction while trying to pray away the gay. He had a parent who worked for The Christian Science Monitor/The Mother Church.

There are others who have attempted suicide for this same reason and reached out to me to share their stories. It is time for things to change and for the periodicals to be kept “abreast of the times”.

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Germany gay marriage approved by MPs in snap vote

NEWS

A clear majority of German MPs have voted to legalise same-sex marriage, days after Chancellor Angela Merkel dropped her opposition to a vote.

The reform grants couples now limited to civil unions full marital rights, and allows them to adopt children.

Mrs Merkel’s political opponents were strongly in favour. But the chancellor, who signalled her backing for a free vote only on Monday, voted against.

The bill was backed by 393 lawmakers, 226 voted against and four abstained.

The German legal code will now read: “Marriage is entered into for life by two people of different or the same sex”, AFP news agency reported.

Following Friday’s vote, Mrs Merkel said that for her marriage was between a man and a woman. But she said she hoped the passing of the bill would lead to more “social cohesion and peace”.

How did this sudden vote come about?

During her 2013 election campaign, Mrs Merkel argued against gay marriage on the grounds of “children’s welfare,” and admitted that she had a “hard time” with the issue.

But in an on-stage interview with the women’s magazine Brigitte on 26 June, she shocked the German media by saying, in response to an audience member’s question, that she had noted other parties’ support for gay marriage, and would allow a free vote at an unspecified time in the future.

“It’s time, Mrs Merkel” Green party leader Katrin Goering-Eckhart said then. “The Merkel faction cannot just sit out the debate on marriage for everyone.”

Merkel, the canny operator – Jenny Hill, BBC News, Berlin

Angela Merkel voted against legalising same sex marriage. Nevertheless, she’ll go down in history as the chancellor who made it possible. Friday marks a historic victory for the political left who’ve fought for years to bring the bill before parliament.

The bill is one of the very last measures to come through parliament before the September general election. By voting against it, Mrs Merkel has appealed to the more conservative members of her electorate. But, by allowing it to happen, she’s cemented her growing reputation as a defender of liberal values and, perhaps more importantly, seen off an issue which might have come to haunt her later on.

If Mrs Merkel wins a majority in September, she’s likely to seek coalition with parties who’d already indicated that same sex marriage legislation would have been a condition of partnership.

Why is this happening now?

Because of an upcoming general election. Germans go to the polls on 24 September, and continued opposition to a vote made Mrs Merkel risk looking anachronistic.

Mrs Merkel’s coalition partners, the SPD, had ruled out a future coalition deal unless reform was agreed on. The Greens, the far-left Linke, and the pro-business Free Democrats took the same view.

The Greens have strongly support gay marriage and deputy Volker Beck joined the celebrations

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now the only party to oppose same-sex marriage.

But conservatives within Mrs Merkel’s own CDU were against a change – as was the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), whose votes Mrs Merkel needs in the September election.

Commentators say this partly explains why she has rejected a vote on marriage equality until now – and why she was taken off-guard by the snap vote.

Where else in Europe has same-sex marriage?

A host of European countries have beaten Germany to a same-sex marriage law.

WHY IS THIS VITAL TO THE HEALTH AND WELL BEING OF OUR YOUTH???

And take a look at our graphic below. You might not have thought that marriage equality legislation could drive down youth suicide rates. But it looks like it has, particularly for sexual minorities. Check it out – and be reminded of what a “you are welcome here” sign can make in a young person’s confidence and desire to excel.

Senior Editor with The Christian Science Monitor‘s EqualEd section

Search for solutions

This is the story of how a Miami psychiatrist managed to beat the system year after year, but finally met his match in a health-care fraud investigator named Alberico Crespo.Staff writer|@WarrenRichey

June 21, 2017 Miami—It started with a letter from US Senator Charles Grassley.

In December 2009, the Iowa Republican demanded to know how a Miami psychiatrist was writing more than 96,000 prescriptions for Medicaid patients. It was nearly twice the number of the second highest prescriber in Florida.

The psychiatrist, Dr. Fernando Mendez-Villamil, responded with a tartly worded message of his own. “I never thought I would be faulted for working hard or for being very organized and efficient,” he wrote the senator.

Health-care fraud costs the US government and insurance companies some $100 billion a year in overcharges and other rip offs, according to experts. It is a perpetual drain on the nation’s wealth, undercutting the ability to provide quality healthcare to those most in need.

Even after Dr. Mendez-Villamil was kicked out of Medicaid and barred from Medicare, he continued to operate an elaborate network of bribes, kickbacks, and payoffs that helped hundreds of fake patients fraudulently obtain Social Security disability payments.

Among hard-boiled fraud investigators in Miami, the strange and circuitous case of Dr. Mendez-Villamil stands out as a monument to criminal innovation, brazen defiance, and greed.

This is the story of how a Miami psychiatrist managed to beat the system year after year, but finally met his match in a health-care fraud investigator named Alberico Crespo.

No one knows the story better than the agent who conducted the investigation and stuck with it through seven years of setbacks and surprises. The story, as told by Agent Crespo, offers an inside look at the problem of health-care fraud from the perspective of an agent on the front lines of that battle.

“He was investigated by a number of agencies who were never able to prove anything,” Crespo said in an interview with the Monitor. “I just happened to be relentless enough.”

Mendez-Villamil was seeing nearly 60 patients every day, six days a week. He allotted 10 to 15 minutes per patient and was writing 2 to 3 prescriptions for each patient. It amounted to 1,400 to 1,500 patients each month.

At that rate, if he billed the standard $45 for each patient visit, he would receive between $63,000 and $67,000 each month under the Medicaid program. On an annual basis that could be as much as $800,000 a year in revenue just from patient visit fees.

Mendez-Villamil was a sole practitioner and employed no other medically trained staff. He retained three workers to help with appointments, handle paperwork, and clean the office. So the overhead expenses for his office were relatively low.

But Crespo couldn’t understand how the psychiatrist was able to see so many people day after day and still do things like eat lunch, use the bathroom, and handle emergency patients.

Through a check of pharmaceutical records, Crespo discovered that the doctor was prescribing large amounts of quetiapine, a drug approved to treat psychiatric patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It is sold commercially under the name Seroquel.

According to federal agents, there is a well-established black market in quetiapine, with street names including “jailhouse heroin,” and “Susie Q.”

The prescriptions Mendez-Villamil wrote were paid through Medicaid, so it didn’t cost the patients anything. They could then either use the drugs as prescribed, abuse the drugs, or sell them to others on the street.

The Increasingly Dark Tone of the Series Was Inspired by Rowling’s Life Experiences.

The Harry Potter series becomes considerably more sophisticated as it progresses, grappling with serious issues like death and bigotry. Rowling has been open about the fact that much of the darkness is autobiographical. Rowling told Oprah Winfrey that, though she did not realize it when she began writing the series, making Harry an orphan, along with his subsequent experiences with death, was her way of dealing with the death of her mother, who died of Multiple Sclerosis when Rowling was 20.

“If she hadn’t died, I don’t think it’s too strong to say that there wouldn’t be Harry Potter. The books are what they are because she died.” The Dementors, among the most frightening creatures in the franchise, were inspired by her struggles with depression during her 20s. “”It’s so difficult to describe to someone who’s never been there, because it’s not sadness. I know sadness. Sadness is to cry and to feel. But it’s that cold absence of feeling—that really hollowed-out feeling. That’s what Dementors are.”

This kingdom of God “is within you,” — is within reach of man’s consciousness here, and the spiritual idea reveals it. In divine Science, man possesses this recognition of harmony consciously in proportion to his understanding of God.

SH 576:21
From Concord Express – A Christian Science Study Resource: The King James Version of the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy’s published writings

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Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton thinks that “Harry Potter” books have a magical touch for building compassion in young readers.

While speaking at the American Library Association conference in Chicago on Tuesday, Clinton touted reading fiction as a way of fostering empathy. She cited “years of data” and one study in particular that focused on author J.K. Rowling’s celebrated fantasy series.

“One study even found that young people who read the ‘Harry Potter’ books, which first came out 20 years ago this week, were more compassionate toward immigrants, refugees and members of the LGBT community,” Clinton told the crowd. “And so, it’s impossible for me to overstate the impact on children who see themselves in the pages of a book and are introduced to people unlike themselves.”

Though she didn’t name the study, Clinton was likely referring to an academic article published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology in July 2014, titled: “The greatest magic of Harry Potter: Reducing prejudice.” Researchers had conducted three studies — one with elementary school children and two with high school and college students in Italy and the U.K. — to determine whether extended reading time improved attitudes toward stigmatized groups.

For the study, Loris Vezzali, a psychologist at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, and his colleagues read children passages from “Harry Potter” that deal with prejudice. These moments would involve characters like Draco Malfoy, a “pure-blood wizard,” calling Harry’s close friend Hermione a “Mudblood,” a derogatory term for a “Muggle-born” wizard or witch, and they show the hero’s subsequent anger at the callousness.

As a control condition, the researchers would read a section not involving prejudice — such as when Harry purchases his magic wand — to another group of children.

After six weeks, both groups of children were asked about their feelings concerning children from other countries. The students who read the passage dealing with prejudice had kinder things to say.

The researchers also said that teens and young adults who identified with Harry generally had more tolerant views toward gay people and refugees than those who did not.

Throughout her speech, which was sponsored by Simon & Schuster (the publishing house that’s releasing her forthcoming children’s book), Clinton expounded upon why she believes the world needs libraries and librarians now more than ever. She said books help shatter stereotypes, broaden perspectives and spark important conversations.

God’s economy:
no risks, no downturns
How I found the perfect job
Sailing forward from
an abusive past

The Annual Windjammer Days Festival is presented by Friends of Windjammers, a nonprofit community organization made up entirely of volunteers. It is the collective passion for the sea and for keeping traditions alive for future generations that drives this event, and keeps our community inspired to bring Windjammer Days to you year and after year. We hope you enjoy!

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Video Footage taken from Boothbay Harbor’s annual Windjammer Days festival. The days of sail come to life every June in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Filmed and produced by Boothbay Region Community Television. Cameras: Ryan Leighton, Jonne Trees, Janet Moller, Kacey Rankins Drone pilots: Jonne Trees, Cody Mitchell Editor: Ryan Leighton

The Official Home of The 55th Annual Windjammer Days Festival

June 25 through July 1, 2017

Windjammer Days marks the kick off to summer in the Boothbay region and is a time to reconnect with family, friends and neighbors after the long winter, an opportunity to support local businesses and welcome visitors. It is a time to honor our maritime history and celebrate the vital role it plays in the lives of all who live here.

Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “All of God’s creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible” (p. 514).

Video – Dedicated to my late lab, “Candy” and Niewlha from Mexico .

Dogs are part of God’s Kingdom

by Rob Scott, C.S.

Boothbay Harbor, Maine

I became a dog lover in my early childhood when my parents brought home a Labrador Retriever which was a puppy at the time when I was only 12 years old.

My mom did not want it running through her new home so they put it behind a gate in the kitchen entrance hall for the night.

But the dog would cry all night long and I knew at the time that she wouldn’t last long like this in our house as both my parents worked.

So I would sneak downstairs and hold her and she would instantly stop crying and quickly fall asleep in my arms. This continued for several nights before I finally would sneak her upstairs and place her on the end of my twin bed where she stayed until I left for college at age 18.

I remember that she brought such harmony and joy into our home. Love was reflected in love.

She chose me as “pack leader” because when our whole family arrived home she would bypass everyone and come right to me to express love with kiss’s and joy. Only after did she visit the rest of the family.

When I was teaching in Mexico, God brought me a dog even when I wasn’t looking for one. I didn’t have to find her. She just came to me! Perhaps it sensed we both needed love.

There are a lot of stray dogs in Mexico. A student once told me the government tries to round up a lot of them for “disposal” before a major tourist attraction comes to the the state.

Niewlha is her name. They labeled her a street dog. She found me one day while waiting for the bus. The family that owns the store near the bus stop had a daughter who took her in and then didn’t want to care for her for various reasons. So she basically returned this dog to the care of the “store” where the owners fed her but made her sleep outside at night.

She always came over to me and put her head in my lap and expressed love before and after teaching. I would hold her and wished I could bring her to school with me.

After that she would follow me where I would sneak her into the entrance hall where I lived and just love her for a few minutes and then walk her back to the store.

Soon there was a whole posse of other dogs that she ran with which surrounded me with love.

The owner where I was staying saw her in the entrance hall one evening and scolded us both and made it clear that no dogs allowed anywhere in his condo. I thought this to be strange since the owner suggested getting a dog before my arrival in Mexico. But I was grateful to have a roof over my head at the time.

But his didn’t stop the love with Niewlha as she would then greet me in the darkness of the early morning hours while I waited for the bus to teach my 7:30 am classes. As a result, there were days when I arrived to school with paw prints on my dress shirt and tie to teach class.

And some evenings she would be right there when I arrived back at night to greet me.

Anytime I had to purchase any food at the store she would also visit me. There was so much love reflected back from each other.

A student once stated how surprised he was that I adjusted so well to Mexican culture.

It was Divine Love that was with me and it showed up in tangible ways to meet the human need.

Everyday when I arrived at school it was like walking into a bundle of love from my students.

I found it in Niewlha and late night candlelit talks on the phone with a person I call “Night Ranger” who use to work for The Christian Science Monitor, TMC and the BA. Our nightly talks continue to this day.

Healing came in moments of prayer and even bitter tears after learning of my grandfather’s suicide.

There were CS practitioners that helped me through the difficult times too.

I am grateful, God.

I now watch after a rescue dog that belongs to the son of the captain of the ship we sail, on the days I work the booth selling tickets.

To my sense, the most imminent dangers confronting the coming century are: the robbing of people of life and liberty under the warrant of the Scriptures; the claims of politics and of human power, industrial slavery, and insufficient freedom of honest competition; and ritual, creed, and trusts in place of the Golden Rule, ‘Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.’

New York World, December, 1900

Insufficient Freedom

(Mary Baker Eddy, reprinted in Miscellany 266: 3-9)

*Matthew 7: 12 (Golden Rule)

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Video – Published on Apr 7, 2016

On Wednesday, in a poignant monologue on her show, Ellen DeGeneres addressed Mississippi’s Religious Freedom Bill. Here are some of the things she had to say: “I’m disappointed for several reasons… that is the definition of discrimination. It’s also something that the Supreme Court already ruled on when they made marriage a right for everyone, everyone… I was fired for being gay and I know what it feels like. I lost everything. But look at me now. I could buy that Governor’s mansion, flip it and make a $7 Million dollar profit… there’s already so much inequality in the world. Women’s rights, gender pay gap, racism. I think we need to remember that we are more similar than we are different. So I advocate for less hate and more love. Less tearing apart and more coming together. Less sitting and more dancing.”

Queen Elizabeth Pledges to Fight Anti-Gay Discrimination

As any good, competent global leader should.

It seems like common sense that national leaders, governmental figureheads, and global influencers should care about all of the people they govern and whose lives their decisions affect. That’s why, during her annual address to Parliament today, Queen Elizabeth II adapted to the times and, for the first time ever, included LGBTQ rights in her outline for the United Kingdom’s policies moving forward.

“My government will make further progress to tackle the gender pay gap and discrimination against people on the basis of their race, faith, gender, disability, or sexual orientation,” the Queen said. Though a single sentence in a lengthy speech, this type of acknowledgement and visibility will only help the LGBTQ community moving forward.

The past has proven how much even a simple nod of recognition can boost the morale of a country’s LGBTQ community [and prevent suicide].

“Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me.”

—Fred Rogers

A Child is Saved By a Light on the Water.

by Rob Scott, C.S.

June 22, 2017

A family arrived at the marina yesterday on a large, beautiful boat. They departed onto the dock with four, young teenagers.

I asked out of curiosity if all those kids were theirs which the father replied that three are their biological children and they are in the process of adopting one boy from another country who is from an orphanage. The young boy seemed to have a slight limp to the human sense.

But I saw only the love and knew that the so called deformity would disappear to the human sense with the stability of a home and all that unconditional love which was evidenced from their family.

They are currently a host family for him right now through a special program and the whole family fell in love with him unconditionally. He will max out of the orphanage very soon due to his age.

The father told me privately that the boy lived in deplorable conditions at the orphanage and may had even lived on the streets. But you could see the strong bond with his new family, especially with the mother whom he seemed not to stray too far from.

I told the father that this event may be one of the single greatest things he has ever done by making a change for goodness. It will effect future generations of the adoptive boy’s children and his children’s children. He will also get a good education.

I felt the same warmth come over me like I did when I taught my students in Mexico. Perhaps it was from seeing “hope” in action which I taught in my conversation classes. This feeling of warmth stayed with me for awhile as I knew the boy was saved.

I closed by saying to the father that too bad we couldn’t here a story like this on the evening news.

They latter all blew the horn on their ship and waved goodbye as it motored out of sight.

It was a light on the water passing through with love and hope. This is evidence that divine love can make a difference

“Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” said Christ Jesus (Matt. 18:20). The Christ is at the heart of Church. It’s the love for God and the love for one another expressed in daily living. Jesus himself walked the countryside teaching and healing people. His “church” happened on a mountainside, a marketplace, or in someone’s home. “When people talk of church today, it’s often in reference to a physical structure,” writes Ethel Baker in this Sentinel’s cover story. “But to Jesus,” she adds, “church hinged on one thing: the ever-present Christ, the truth and spirit of God and His creation” (p. 22).

And if you want to know where “hope” is then look around as it is all around us. All you have to do is look.

Never let “hope” fade.

It is “hopelessness” that people get stuck in” NOT “Hope”.

“Never give up, right teacher?”

Truth, Wisdom, Love and Sincerity, to ALL Mankind,

♫ Lord of the Rings – Into the West (with lyric)

A Light On the Water …

Powerful Guardian – George Frideric Handel

Powerful Guardian of all nations, O preserve Thy children.

Save Thy children from all their enemies, Save Thy children from all their enemies.

Blessed is the man whose hope is in the Lord, O blessed is the man.

O blessed is the man whose hope is in the Lord.

Powerful Guardian of all nations, Powerful guardian of all nations.

O preserve Thy children, Powerful guardian of all nations,

O preserve thy children.

Words Above had been Sung by a Soloist during a previous Wednesday Night Testimony Meeting here in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Logo is from a charitable foundation set up by J.K. Rowling to eliminate and replace all orphanages which put profits over the care of the children. “Lumos” is a light saving spell from one of her Harry Potter book series.

… it shall be the duty of the Directors to see that these periodicals are … kept abreast of the times.

Mary Baker Eddy

Several articles and editorials have been written explaining why homosexuals cannot be admitted to membership. One of these I wrote myself, the title: “Homosexuality Can Be Healed.” All I can say in defense of myself for writing it is that it was based on information I thought was authentic, but which later was disproved by further studies. If I were to write another article on the subject now, I would probably entitle it, “We’re ALL God’s Children.”

by Carl J. Welz, C.S.B.

Houston, TX – October 11, 1986

“It really is all about … changing the mindset [of the school] to do what’s best for the kids,” Principal Owens says. “When you know better, you do better.”

“It takes time,” Owens says. “But this is 2017. Things are different. We can’t keep responding the same way we did 15 or 20 years ago.”

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Freedom Writers Field Trip to Washington D.C. – “We all held hands as we left the hotel. We took a walk to the Washington Memorial … and their was a 150 of us [holding hands] and we didn’t let go…we stopped traffic … and you could feel the presence that this was something bigger than us…we’re changing the world.”

Why a good racial mix may also create a sense of comfort at school

Creating school where kids feel that they ‘fit’

The authors of the new research attribute the well-being of students at more diverse schools to a broader sense of acceptance and equality among peers.

“We presume that in these types of environments, there is a good balance of power among the groups and … students do not feel intimidated or threatened by students from other ethnic groups,” says Jaana Juvonen, professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and lead author of the study. “There are also likely to be multiple norms for behavior and looks, hence it is easier for any one student to find their niche and feel that they ‘fit in.’ ”

“There’s kind of this renewed emphasis on integration and diversity in the US,” Wells says. “If we don’t tackle these issues of integration, these schools won’t be stable and they won’t be sustainable over time.”

Changing the mindset of a school

The school has in recent years stepped up its efforts through the professional development of teachers, honest conversations about issues of diversity among faculty and staff, and collaboration with parents and the outside community, according to principal Cecelie Owens.

“It really is all about … changing the mindset [of the school] to do what’s best for the kids,” Principal Owens says. “When you know better, you do better.”

Among the student body, West Hertel has worked to foster an environment of inclusiveness through schoolwide projects and regular events celebrating different cultures, adds Rebekah Barbera, a fifth-grade ENL (English as a New Language) teacher at the school.

They note that progress has been slow – as experts say it often is – but noticeable.

“It takes time,” Owens says. “But this is 2017. Things are different. We can’t keep responding the same way we did 15 or 20 years ago.”

And take a look at our graphic below. You might not have thought that marriage equality legislation could drive down youth suicide rates. But it looks like it has, particularly for sexual minorities. Check it out – and be reminded of what a “you are welcome here” sign can make in a young person’s confidence and desire to excel.

Senior Editor with The Christian Science Monitor‘s EqualEd section

J.K. Rowling

We totally support and applaud the excellent motives of those who labor as doctors and nurses on behalf of their patients and for the well-being of all of us. The following is a caveat of the dark side of drug manufacture, use and abuse which too infrequently has seen the light of day. Let’s not be the “Christian asleep” on these issues. By uncovering these errors we hope to wake people up to the grave dangers of putting profits over patient care. Perhaps there needs to be a little more “care” in healthcare.

The US is only one of two countries in the world (the other being New Zealand) which allows drugs to be advertised on television. Why is that?

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Take from a lie its power to deceive and it becomes nothing, for its very being depends upon its ability to mislead. A lie must have two willing accessories – one who is willing to be deceived: one who is willing to deceive – the victimized and the victim; if either is wanting, the lie can do nothing.

Mary Baker Eddy

Blue Book by Richard Oakes

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“Truth is God’s remedy for error of every kind, and Truth destroys only what is untrue.”

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When wisdom bids one uncover to another a sinful belief in order that it may be destroyed by Truth, there is often a hesitancy to do so. It sometimes seems easier to remain silent … than to risk offending … Jesus must have loved Peter dearly, yet he did not withhold the necessary rebuke when Peter permitted false beliefs to deceive him.

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I have patients who are at a level of despair that I cannot reach as we don’t have a pill for “hope”.

Chair, Department of Psychiatry

Three Hospital system

The Lancet

Drugs kill. After heart disease and cancer, drugs are the third leading cause of deaths in Europe and the USA, states Peter Gøtzsche in Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare. He estimates that in the USA, every year, about 100 000 deaths are due to drugs, despite people taking the drugs correctly, and another 100 000 people die because of errors. According to Gøtzsche, “we now suffer from two man-made epidemics, tobacco and prescription drugs, both of which are hugely lethal” and the norm for both industries is a “morally repugnant disregard for human lives”. Furthermore, Gøtzsche claims, the business model of the drug industry is “organised crime”. He told The Lancet that he has written his latest book because he wants to “influence policy towards much more transparency”.

Throughout Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime Gøtzsche uses many anecdotes, provides countless facts and comments based on facts, and cites more than 900 references to draw attention to the allegedly shocking crimes committed by the drug industry (including manufacturers of medical devices). Gøtzsche understands pharmaceutical companies only too well because of his long and varied career in health care, with roles that have included drug representative for big pharma, researcher in clinical trials, physician, lecturer, and author of papers and books. He cofounded the Cochrane Collaboration and is the Director of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen. With his expertise and uncompromising attitude, Gøtzsche is outraged and outspoken in his book about pharmaceutical companies being “just like street drug pushers”.

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Anemia drug made billions but at what cost?

The Washington Post

2012/07/19

For years, a trio of anemia drugs known as Epogen, Procrit and Aranesp ranked among the best-selling prescription drugs in the United States, generating more than $8 billion a year for two companies, Amgen and Johnson & Johnson. Even compared with other pharmaceutical successes, they were superstars. For several years, Epogen ranked as the single costliest medicine under Medicare: U.S. taxpayers put up as much as $3 billion a year for the drugs.

The trouble, as a growing body of research has shown, is that for about two decades, the benefits of the drug — including “life satisfaction and happiness” according to the FDA-approved label — were wildly overstated, and potentially lethal side effects, such as cancer and strokes, were overlooked.

Last year, Medicare researchers issued an 84-page study declaring that among most kidney patients, the original and largest market for the drugs, there was no solid evidence that they made people feel better, improved their survival or had any “clinical benefit” besides elevating a statistic for red blood cell count.

“It was just so easy to do — you put this stuff in the patient’s arm, and you made thousands of dollars,” said Charles Bennett, endowed chair at the Medication Safety and Efficacy Center of Economic Excellence at the University of South Carolina and one of the critics of the use of the drug in cancer patients. “An oncologist could make anywhere from $100,000 to $300,000 a year from this alone. And all the while they were told that it was good for the patient.”

For those who have lost relatives who had been given the drugs, only doubts remain: What killed their loved ones — the disease or the drugs they took to treat it?

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GLAXO SMITHKLINE FINED $3 BILLION

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that GlaxoSmithKline had agreed to pay $3 billion in criminal and civil fines for its misdeeds in inappropriately marketing Paxil and another antidepressant, Wellbutrin; for withholding information on the cardiovascular risks of Avandia, a diabetes drug that has been shown to cause heart attacks; and for promoting Advair, an inhaled lung drug, to patients with mild asthma even though it wasn’t approved or appropriate for them. The fine was the largest ever imposed by the U.S. on a pharmaceutical company and settled both civil and criminal charges.

The settlement agreement and the attached documents were full of juicy details that have now been widely reported: How GSK orchestrated the publication of a “misleading,” ghost-written study purporting to show that Paxil helped children when evidence suggested the opposite.

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Drug Research in China Falls Under a Cloud

The New York Times

The confdential document from November 2011, obtained by The New York Times, suggests that Glaxo’s problems may go beyond the sales practices that are currently at the center of a bribery and corruption scandal in China. They may extend to its Shanghai research and development center, which develops neurology drugs for Glaxo.

Glaxo’s research and development center opened in 2007 with lofty ambitions not only to help the company’s drugs get approved in China, but also to serve as one of its primary research hubs.

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GlaxoSmithKline Fined $488.8M for ‘Massive Bribery Network

KAIJING XIAO

Friday, September 19, 2014

BEIJING –

China has fined the British pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline(GSK) $488.8 million (3 billion Yuan) for a “massive bribery network” to get doctors and hospitals to use its products. Five former employees were sentenced to two to four years in jail, but ordered deported instead of imprisoned, according to state news agency Xinhua today.

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The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder

The New York Times

by Allan Schwartz – December 14, 2013

Roger Griggs, who introduced Adderall in 1964 before ads portraying medication as a way to improve grades and behavior were allowed, said, “There’s no way on God’s green earth we ever promote stimulates directly to consumers. Karstan Moran said to The New York Times.

“After more than 50 years leading the fight to legitimize attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Keith Conners could be celebrating.

But Dr. Conners did not feel triumphant this fall as he addressed a group of fellow A.D.H.D. specialists in Washington. He noted that recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the diagnosis had been made in 15 percent of high school-age children, and that the number of children on medication for the disorder had soared to 3.5 million from 600,000 in 1990. He questioned the rising rates of diagnosis and called them “a national disaster of dangerous proportions.”

“The numbers make it look like an epidemic. Well, it’s not. It’s preposterous,” Dr. Conners, a psychologist and professor emeritus at Duke University, said in a subsequent interview. “This is a concoction to justify the giving out of medication at unprecedented and unjustifiable levels.”

Behind that growth has been drug company marketing that has stretched the image of classic A.D.H.D. to include relatively normal behavior like carelessness and impatience, and has often overstated the pills’ benefits. Advertising on television and in popular magazines like People and Good Housekeeping has cast common childhood forgetfulness and poor grades as grounds for medication that, among other benefits, can result in “schoolwork that matches his intelligence” and ease family tension.”A magazine ad for Concerta had a grateful mother saying, “Better test scores at school, more chores done at home, an independence I try to encourage, a smile I can always count on.” A 2009 ad for Intuniv, Shire’s nonstimulant treatment for A.D.H.D., showed a child in a monster suit taking off his hairy mask to reveal his adorable smiling self. “There’s a great kid in there,” the text read.

Shire agreed last February to pay $57.5 million in fines to resolve allegations of improper sales and advertising of several drugs, including Vyvanse, Adderall XR and Daytrana, a patch that delivers stimulant medication through the skin. Mr. Casola of Shire declined to comment on the settlement because it was not fully resolved.

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Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, November 4, 2013

Johnson & Johnson to Pay More Than $2.2 Billion to Resolve Criminal and Civil Investigations

Allegations Include Off-label Marketing and Kickbacks to Doctors and Pharmacists

In a related civil complaint filed today in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States alleges that Janssen marketed Risperdal to control the behaviors and conduct of the nation’s most vulnerable patients: elderly nursing home residents, children and individuals with mental disabilities. The government alleges that J&J and Janssen caused false claims to be submitted to federal health care programs by promoting Risperdal for off-label uses that federal health care programs did not cover, making false and misleading statements about the safety and efficacy of Risperdal and paying kickbacks to physicians to prescribe Risperdal.

“J&J’s promotion of Risperdal for unapproved uses threatened the most vulnerable populations of our society – children, the elderly and those with developmental disabilities,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Zane Memeger. “This historic settlement sends the message that drug manufacturers who place profits over patient care will face severe criminal and civil penalties.”

In its complaint, the government alleges that the FDA repeatedly advised Janssen that marketing Risperdal as safe and effective for the elderly would be “misleading.” The FDA cautioned Janssen that behavioral disturbances in elderly dementia patients were not necessarily manifestations of psychotic disorders and might even be “appropriate responses to the deplorable conditions under which some demented patients are housed, thus raising an ethical question regarding the use of an antipsychotic medication for inappropriate behavioral control.”

The government’s complaint also contains allegations that Janssen paid speaker fees to doctors to influence them to write prescriptions for Risperdal. Sales representatives allegedly told these doctors that if they wanted to receive payments for speaking, they needed to increase their Risperdal prescriptions.

Off-Label Promotion of the Heart Failure Drug Natrecor:

This case is an example of a drug company encouraging doctors to use a drug in a way that was unsupported by valid scientific evidence,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California Brian Stretch. “We are committed to ensuring that federal health care programs do not pay for such inappropriate uses, and that pharmaceutical companies market their drugs only for uses that have been proven safe and effective.”

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How A Big Drug Company Inadvertently Got Americans Hooked On Heroin:

In dozens of seminars in ritzy hotel conference rooms across North America, the company sold doctors on the idea that the time-release function made OxyContin perfect for a population of patients who were suffering from chronic pain. Representatives also argued that the drug’s spaced-out effects made it less likely that patients would get addicted — which was the main factor deterring many physicians from prescribing opioids for chronic pain.

“This campaign focused on convincing doctors that they shouldn’t worry about addiction, so the medical community was taught to believe that addiction to opiates was relatively rare,” said Andrew Kolodny, the director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing.

The pitch was convincing, Kolodny said, because no doctor wants to believe that they’re keeping a patient in pain unnecessarily. By 2001, OxyContin had exceeded more than $1 billion in sales, and by 2003, nearly half of the doctors prescribing OxyContin were primary care physicians, according to a 2004 report from the Government Accountability Office.

“As prescriptions began to take off, it led to an epidemic of opioid addiction,” Kolodny said. “We all became much more likely to have opioids in our homes, so it created a hazard.”

“We have now this incredibly unusual public health crisis that’s essentially caused by physicians, caused by the health care industry,” said Meldon Kahan, the medical director of substance use services at the Women’s College Hospital in Toronto.

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“The First Drug Czar Speaks”

[The antidote]

Over the years, various strategies for dealing with illegal drugs have been attempted. They include incentives to steer farmers away from raising plants such as poppies, hashish, and coca that are the source of illicit drugs. A common complaint is that none of the alternatives to providing such crops—whether it’s raising cows in Lebanon or cucumbers in the Andes—is as lucrative or as easy. Recently, the Journal spoke with Egil “Bud” Krogh, who, under President Richard Nixon, became the United States’ first drug czar. He offered some observations about then and now.

What nurtures this belief that drugs will help?

“I think it goes right back to the feeling that materiality can give pleasure or satisfaction. Feelings of separation and loneliness drive people into drugs. For young people, it’s often just wanting desperately to be included as part of an in-group. There’s this really intense desire to belong—to have a boyfriend or girlfriend, or to be part of group.

The antidote is the understanding that we are all at one with our infinite divine source. That gives us all the joy and peace we could possibly want. But I think society still hasn’t grasped these ideas widely enough. In the long term, and even the short term, individuals who have been healed of using drugs have had a deeper insight into who they are. These people were able to give up drugs through the realization at some level that they were not separate and alone, that God was with them and loved them. I’m not sure they would put it in those terms, although some do. But I think a sense of being loved really does make the difference.”

“The heart that beats mostly for self is seldom alight with love. To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science.”5

What is Christian Science?

Christian Science is not something new, but it gives the scientific explanation of the Bible, particularly of the teachings of Jesus. It reveals God as the omnipotent, only cause and creator, who, maintaining all reality, is ever near and sustains and protects His entire creation. When one lets the divine Spirit govern him, he is lifted out of the beliefs of sin, sickness, and suffering, which originate in the belief in a power besides God. Christian Science does not teach that healing is accomplished through the power of the so-called human mind over the body, but it teaches that God, Truth, can destroy all wrong thoughts and conditions. The power of God knows no exceptions, and men can experience the blessings of eternal Truth here and now.

Don’t be indifferent to indifference

Indifference is a dull, unresponsive state of mind that is opposed to learning, to taking action, to accomplishment, to progress, to lending a helping hand—in a word, it’s opposed to good. If we go along with indifference, it becomes a sort of self-sabotage, and we keep turning away from opportunities to develop and advance and accomplish good things.

But we have the ability to change this way of thinking, and if we want to live fuller and happier lives, we should. The authority to make this change comes from the knowledge that man is the likeness of God, the active and responsive expression of divine Life and Love. “God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis,” writes the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,p. 258).

The acknowledgment that good is what God, Love, has in store for us, and the determination to respond to His direction, wake us up spiritually. It’s like the morning light waking us from a dream that we are sinking in quicksand. Once awake, we know that the sense of sluggishness or futility associated with being in the sand is unreal.

Say goodbye to indifference. Doing so, we’ll discover there are all kinds of opportunities for enjoying life and accomplishing good. There’s no limit to what divine Life has to offer. The important thing is to accept this divine generosity.